Who would have thought Mark Twain would have something profound to say about Employee Benefits?
As regular readers to this blog or the magazine may have noted, I am often a little fond of quoting Mark Twain in my features, usually attempting to shoe horn some wise remarks from the legendary humorist into the beginnings and endings of features.
Normally I use a quote-site although that doesn’t mean I that I haven’t read either of ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ or ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ In fact, I read both as a child in copies given to my Father as awards in school during the early sixties.
One of the best things about quoting Twain is that often he’s more acceptable to quote than the alternative, Tommy Cooper. This one comes from: a letter written to Louis Pendleton in 1888: “A man's private thought can never be a lie; what he thinks, is to him the truth, always.”
Still relevant 120 years later, this observation is a neat summation of Professor Mansel Aylward’s conclusion to his presentation at last week’s launch of the Protection Review. According to Aylward, the mental state and perceptions of a person are the biggest influence on sickness, long-term absence and getting back to work.
The gist of it goes like this: a person gets symptoms which are not are an ‘illness’ until someone identifies it as such. Then, what that person takes time off, it is then identified as ‘sickness’. The key word here is ‘identified’. It is only over the last couple of generations that our meanings of ill-health have altered and, as a result, concepts of occupational health, flexible working and wellness have risen in popularity.
Years ago, a bad back would have been something that was lived with; now, it is often the reason for extended periods of absence, intervention and future safeguarding.
And perceptions also apparently aid or hinder our passage back into work. One reason for coming back earlier was a desire not to let co-workers or colleagues down. And, obviously, no person is going to rush back from sickness if their job is situation in a (metaphorical) war zone.
What all this means for protection is that the more a person feels their employer cares about them, the more likely they are to head back to work. That could mean better support systems for employees, and these are often provided through Employee Benefit products.
But really, at the end of the day, I’m just happy to quote Mark Twain in something.
Peter Carvill
